What frame bed and where to buy?

[Jonathan]

I use 18mm MDF on my machine bed, which is considerably larger and I think it's a good choice for your machine.

1. You can screw directly into it
2. You can surface it with the machine to get it precisely flat (parallel to X&Y), unlike aluminium which you can't surface as that frame is nowhere near strong enough.
3. It looks like a cheap frame anyway, so no point spending lots on the bed.
4. B&Q will cut it to size for you so you can get 4 (?) pieces from one sheet which is £17.48
5. Skips are a good place to find MDF :whistling:

A sheet of MDF will not be as strong as an aluminium or HDPE bed, but considering the strength of the gantry / rest of the machine I think that's nothing to worry about.

It also depends on what sort of things your machining. If you're using a lot of cutting oil/coolant (probably not likely?) then HDPE is much better for obvious reasons.